 February 2001
Making Your Web Site "Catechetical", Part
2
Praying, building community, and
evangelizing on the Web
For those who may have read last month's
title and thought that this topic was too far afield, I offer this
prediction: In the next five years, more than half of you will come to see
an Internet presence as an important part of your mission. Many
have already committed substantial resources to parish or school web
sites. Many more will follow. In the next few years many of you will be
asking serious questions about how your church or school community can
have a stronger presence on the 'Net.
As we look again at tasks of catechesis this
month, let's consider more ways that we can bring the Good News to the world
through this remarkable medium.
Task #4: Teaching to Pray
The General
Directory for Catechesis encourages us to permeate our
catechetical sessions with a "climate of prayer", following the
example of Jesus (#85). Jesus' profound relationship with God is
epitomized in the Lord's Prayer. Catechists must help their learners to
live out the demands of this prayer, to "breathe it" with their
lives, as Jesus did.
How do we use a web site to teach surfers to
pray? How can we use it to convey the depth and spirit of the Lord's Prayer? How do we make a computer a
place, a tool for prayer and spirituality?
As I said last month, we will, in many
ways, fall short of this task when we try to do it on the Internet!
However, there are things parishes, schools and even publishers can
do to promote this aspect of
catechesis. I mentioned last month that there has been a remarkable
response to the Center's Prayer
Request Page. Here we have focused upon prayer as
intercession. It would certainly be simple to offer a page like this at a parish or
school sitel. One could provide an email link to a team of
intercessors, or people who would bring online needs to the Prayers of the
Faithful at Mass. We are all very familiar with this form of prayer.
However, we have often neglected other
forms of prayer. How might we bring adoration and praise, contemplation,
and meditation to our site? How might we lead surfers to pray in new ways?
Commercial sites can offer links to books and other spirituality
resources. We can certainly provide links to retreat houses and spiritual centers.
In addition, how about a prayer page that takes each part of the Lord's prayer, phrase
by phrase, and invites participants to pray in a related way? Here is
an example of what this page might do:.
Example:
Our Father, who art in heaven.....[click here to read and offer testimony
to the splendor of creation, or something that reveals the presence of God
to you]
Hallowed be thy name...[click here to offer praise and adoration]
Thy kingdom come...[click here to pray for the coming of the Reign
of God, in our hearts, in our lives, in our world]
Thy will be done...[click here for strength to let God's will be
done in your life]
On earth, as it is in heaven...[click here to find links and helps
for contemplative prayer]
Give us this day our daily bread...[click here to pray for any
human need]
and forgive us our trespasses....[click here for an Examination of
Conscience, and find helps for celebrating the Sacrament of
Reconciliation]
as we forgive those who trespass against us...[click here for help
with finding strength to forgive someone who has wronged you]
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil...[click
here to pray for strength to be a Christian in today's world]
How about other traditional prayers of the
Church? the Rosary? the Liturgy of the Hours? Www.universalis.com
provides complete links to the liturgical calendar and the Liturgy of
the Hours for each day. Numerous other sites offer helps and links to
treasures of Catholic spirituality.
When thinking about the design of your web site,
consider how you can form your visitors to be people of prayer. How will
your site help them to unpack the mystery of the powerful prayer life of
Jesus? That amazing Lord's Prayer? The spiritual riches of the
Church?
Tasks 5 & 6: Education for Community
Life and Missionary Initiation
The final two tasks of catechesis mentioned
by the GDC are closely related. From the relationship with God forged
through prayer, they move outward to consideration of our neighbor. The GDC calls us to consider the
fundamental task of building community among fellow believers, and
reaching out with love to those beyond our Christian community. Following
this mandate, a truly "catechetical" web site will concern
itself with helping its visitors to "love one another, even as I have
loved you." (John 13:34, GDC#86).
This task is certainly as daunting, or even
more so, than the others we have mentioned. Community life, properly
speaking, happens in homes, on the street, in the workplace, or any place
where people gather face-to-face. The "virtual" world of the
Internet, by contrast, is often impersonal, anonymous, and sometimes
downright creepy! How do we bring Christian community here?
We can do this, first of all, by
designing our site in a style that is welcoming. Is it easy to navigate?
Is it helpful? Can we help people find directions to our facility, or
order items from us? Is our site written with the general, curious visitor
in mind? If total strangers to Catholicism happen across our site, will
they find something that catches their attention?
To support a spirit of mutual caring, a web
site could collect news from its members. Parishes and schools can offer
birth and death announcements, important family news and celebrations.
Corporate sites can encourage letters and interaction between consumers
through forums hosted by some of their experts.
A Spirit of Openness
To promote the task of missionary initiation, the GDC encourages us to
have an openness to ecumenism and interreligious dialogue (#86). Can we
bring such an openness to our web site? Can we promote ecumenical and
interreligious projects and events? Can we provide for the non-Catholic
browser some resources for figuring out who we are as Roman Catholics?
All of these elements lead us to a final
challenge: How does (or will) our web site evangelize? Would a
stranger coming upon our site feel compelled to get to know us more, and
to find out more about the person of Jesus Christ? Even
more important than our content, these two tasks demand a "tone"
from us. As we publish material on the World Wide Web, we bring our
parish, school, organization, or company before the scrutiny of the entire
world. Will the world be encouraged by what it sees? Will it see, in the
images and files and words of our site, the image of Christ himself?
How are we called to evangelize on the
Web? What can we do to "make a difference" on the
Internet?
The possible dream
Writing this column I have become thoroughly convinced
that we can make a web site truly "catechetical", in ways that
inspire and bless those who visit. What steps can you take today to boldly
enter and minister within this exciting new frontier?
Chris Weber
Director
Catholic Education Ministries of Central Maryland.
Copyright © 2001 by the Catholic Education
Ministries Center of Central Maryland, Emmitsburg, MD 21727. All rights reserved.
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